Targeted Therapeutic Delivery through Modified Nanocarriers
Mentors Project Description The ability to programmably deliver immunotherapies is an emerging area of vaccine design as it enables us to manipulate molecules that stimulate the immune system (e.g. proteins, DNA) to make more potent responses. Although nanocarriers used in drug delivery research stabilize the immunogenic molecules they encapsulate and allow for their controlled release, […]
Characterizing Relaxin-2 as a Therapeutic Candidate for Fibrosis
Mentors Project Description Biomaterials are essential tools in biomedical research, providing physiologically relevant environments that support the study of disease mechanisms and the evaluation of therapeutic candidates including relaxin-2 in fibrotic conditions. Using the endogenous hormone relaxin-2, this project will evaluate its therapeutic potential for reducing fibrotic tissue within a uterus-mimicking environment. Throughout this project, […]
Developing Anchoring Methods to Generate and Mature 3D-Engineered Tissues
Mentors Project Description The field of tissue engineering commonly employs post-like 3D mechanical boundaries as a useful way to give cues to the cells for compacting and remodeling the extracellular matrix. These boundaries and anchoring play a key role since they define the shape of the tissue and report forces tissues generate through their deformations. […]
Real-Time Integrated ORBGRAND-Based Transceiver (RIOT)
Mentors Project Description With the rapid advancements in high-speed computing and digital signal processing for the Internet of Things (IoT), the volume of data transmitted and received across multiple devices has increased exponentially. However, received data is often susceptible to corruption due to noise, necessitating the use of efficient decoding techniques to mitigate its effects […]
How to Use Machine Learning to Automate Aligning Optical Components in Experiments
Mentors Project Description The goal of this project is to develop a machine learning-based approach for automated laser beam alignment using mirrors. By leveraging optical simulations, we aim to train algorithms that can optimize mirror adjustments to achieve precise beam positioning. This project will explore various ML techniques, such as reinforcement learning and gradient-based optimization […]
Designing a Soft Bioinspired Grasper for Underwater Manipulation
Mentors Project Description The Morphable Biorobotics Lab at Boston University is developing a bioinspired soft underwater gripper for grasping delicate marine samples. This technology is key to ensuring adaptability in unpredictable environments without inflicting damage to the sample, the environment or the robot itself. This REU project aims to design a soft gripper that encloses […]
Advancing Early Alzheimer’s Detection with Biosensing
Mentors Project Description Our research lab, in Boston University Photonics Center’s Business Innovation Center, is focused on the development of new diagnostic tests to support personalized therapeutic strategies for patients suffering from neurological conditions. Given the increasingly decentralized nature of healthcare and clinical trials, there is a need for easy-to-use, cost-effective remote monitoring tools in […]
Engineering Microenvironment-triggered Self-reporting Immunotherapy
Mentors Project Description Precision medicine has a transformative impact in managing heterogeneous disorders, including cancer, metabolic, and neurological diseases. At the living interface of precision engineering and health, the Hao laboratory develops molecular and cellular tools to precisely track and control disease biology in intact organisms. The specific research interests include (1) noninvasive disease detection […]
Thermocapillary Manipulation of Liquid Optical Waveguides
Mentors Project Description The overall goal of this project is to explore how light can be guided and manipulated inside a thin liquid film, turning it into an optical waveguide with real-time dynamic control over its functionality. If a liquid film is suspended within an immiscible liquid environment, it will maintain uniform and smooth surfaces, […]
Hardware Programming for Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems
Mentors Project Description The student will conduct background research on hardware programming and will build an all-electrical setup for precision measurement of an electro-mechanical resonator. The student will be provided with relevant hardware and software, including FPGA (field programmable gate arrays) boards, their corresponding IDEs (integrated development environment), and other pieces of electronics. The student […]